This week, I participated in a debate on the subject of same-sex marriage before an audience at the University of Glasgow. The motion was “Politics, Religion and Expression: This House Supports Gay Marriage.” The format took a parliamentary style, with teams of three representing each side. Representing traditional marriage were myself, Father John Keenan (Catholic […]
ENV’s Casey Luskin has already drawn our attention to the groundbreaking research published this week by ENCODE. A number of ID critics are asking the question: “Why should a pro-intelligent design news site care about these results?” After all, the discovery that a great proportion of the non-coding regions of the genome are functional does […]
The moral argument for the existence of God refers to the claim that God is needed to provide a coherent ontological foundation for the existence of objective moral values and duties. The argument can be summarised in the following syllogism: Premise 1: If God does not exist, then objective moral values and duties do not […]
A number of significant events occurred in the life of the church in the decade of the A.D. 60’s. Among them was the great fire of Rome which broke out in A.D. 64, resulting in Nero cracking down on Christians, thus greatly exacerbating the perseuction of the early church. This intense persecution would would last […]
The Nativity and, in particular, the virgin birth has increasingly come under attack from liberal scholarship in recent years. Those committed to a naturalistic worldview dismiss the virgin birth of Jesus as fanciful. Some have even questioned whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem and whether Mary and Joseph’s venture to this town was prompted by […]
Much of the book of Acts — about 50% — is comprised of speeches, discourses and letters. Among them, a total of eight speeches are given by Peter; a total of nine speeches delivered by Paul; there is Stephen’s famous address before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:2-53); a brief address at the Jerusalem Council by James […]
The concept of cosmic fine tuning relates to a unique property of our universe whereby the physical constants and laws are observed to be balanced on a ‘razor’s edge’ for permitting the emergence of complex life. The degree to which the constants of physics must match precise criteria is such that a number of agnostic […]
Throughout the Old Testament, we routinely encounter the mysterious character who goes by the title “The angel of the Lord.” By looking at the numerous appearances of this individual, we can piece together clues as to His identity. The first time the angel of the Lord is introduced, he makes an appearance to Hagar, the […]
The historicity of Adam and Eve is a question which strikes at the heart of the Christian faith. If the primordial pair did not exist, then the historical and Biblical doctrine of the fall becomes extremely difficult to maintain. The apostle Paul clearly linked God’s redemptive plan and Christ’s atonement for sin with the fall […]
Same sex marriage has been a very topical subject in Scotland over recent weeks, with the launch of a consultation by the Scottish National Party (SNP) — which closes this Friday — on whether marriage in Scotland should be redefined to effectively legalise gay marriage and religious ceremonies for civil partnerships. The Scottish government has […]